Nickels was sent home from Gadsden Regional Medical Center today, but he says he’s “felt better.” His face and neck, he said, are affected by a rash and he has slight tremors in his arms and legs, though both conditions have eased up in the past day.

Nickels said he was conducting his class Thursday like any other day. There was a guest speaker, then he began going over items that would be on the midterm test. Teachers were instructed to keep their students in the classroom, shortly after some students began exhibiting symptoms described as “hyperventilation” or “panic attacks.”

Nickels was speaking to the class when he noticed some students pointing in the direction of a female seventh grade student who was “jittery,” he said. Then, she slumped over and passed out, and another student sitting nearby caught her before her head hit the floor.

“I’m very thankful for that,” he said. “She could have been seriously injured.”

Nickels said he picked up the student and carried her out of the classroom. Within minutes, an ambulance arrived to take her to the hospital. Teachers and administrators then began trying to deal with the reports of students who had just come from a physical education class and were having respiratory problems. Nickels said his classroom is about 400 yards from the gym.

Teachers began ushering children to the school lunchroom, and from there, the decision was made to transport the schools’ 322 students to nearby Hokes Bluff High School. There, they would be served lunch and would wait in the gym for parents to pick them up.

Nickels said students handled the evacuation well, and within about 10 minutes, they had boarded five buses to make the trip.

“The kids responded well,” he said. Once they were at the school, Nickels and other teachers set up a check-out station for students to be picked up.

Then something went wrong. “The next thing I remember was that I was on a gurney,” he said.

Nickels blacked out. People who saw him told him he was unresponsive, his face a vivid red, and he was sweating profusely. He was also having trouble breathing.

At the hospital, he was given oxygen and breathing treatments. They also took blood samples in an effort to determine the cause of the condition. The rash he developed resembles a water blister, he said, with some bumps.

Nickels is complimentary of the care he received at Gadsden Regional, and he feels school and public health officials are doing a good job of dealing with the situation. He is waiting for results from his tests, and hopes some explanation will turn up.

“Nobody has said anything yet,” he said. “It’s just hard not knowing.”